I’ve lived in my house in Torrance, California for 23 years now. Been in L.A. since I was 19 years old in 1976, back when then Governor Brown was telling us that we were “living in an era of diminished expectations.” He always was so ahead of the curve…

I was in Carson California last month at their City Council meeting to speak on behalf of the resolution I asked them to pass to approve participating in a feasibility study on community choice aggregation (CCA).

Carson was the sixth city to have our resolution on their agenda, the five others having already passed it. Like in each of the other cities, someone in Carson, this time the City Manager, had the same question for me,

“I understand all the CCA program stuff you’re telling us about Joe, but what I don’t get is what’s in it for YOU?”

That’s what someone always asks when I pitch them our South Bay Clean Power initiative, especially when they find out I’m doing this work full time. They want to know who is paying me.

When you work pro bono, turn down all job and consulting offers on the issue, and say “no,” to $18,000 a month gigs offered you by people in this growing field, people get real suspicious and uneasy.

My pals at Greenpeace, spearheaded by my sister from another mother, Jenny Binstock, produced the video above to warn folks like me, who live in ToxicTown Torrance, that we’re not really safe from the danger that surrounds us all over the South Bay and throughout all of Los Angeles. Luckily we have Greenpeace on the case to do the job that our own Mayor and City Council just aren’t courageous or visionary enough to do.

Mayor Frank Scotto and my friend, Councilman Cliff Numark, should be the ones informing us of this danger and they should be the ones inviting Retired LA fire captain Ed Shlegel to talk to our citizens about the importance of chemical security legislation and the ways we could all be made safer in our homes, in our schools and in our businesses. They should be the ones urging you to contact US Senator Boxer to tell her to schedule a vote on the Secure Water Facilities Act before the August Recess.

But they’re not and they’re unlikely to ever show that kind of leadership. They’ve never shown the willingness or the balls to take on for profit businesses who foul our skies, pollute our air and poison our lands. They seem to think that short term financial gain and tax dollars are worth the long-term health and safety risks that come with these dirty businesses. I’m afraid to report that their idea of sustainability applies only to their own terms in office.

Here’s Boxer’s phone number: 202-224-3553. Tell her you won’t vote for her in a few months unless she does the right thing right now.

Tell her that after her failure to get us a climate bill that you’ve lost faith in her ability to deliver on ANY of her promises and that you don’t care if she loses her job or not. That’s what I told the staffer who answered her phone.

Exxon keeps on funding groups that keep us from cracking down on the greenhouse gases and CO2 Exxon pumps into the atmosphere every day. Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson may not care about the future of his own children or any of the children of Exxon employees, but is it okay with you if he sells your kids out for more money too? Just wondering, parents…

The clock is ticking and the earth is warming. I want Exxon and their huge carbon footprint out of Torrance, the town I live in, because I don’t want their climate crimes to continue overheating our planet, changing our climate and ruining the future of our children and their children after them. I salute and support Greenpeace for caring about the generations that Exxon has written off as collateral damage.

How do you like me now South Bay spewers of greenhouse gases? Yeah, I’m talking to you Exxon/Mobil mercenaries who work at the Torrance refinery and you amoral assassins who get your blood money from the Chevron refinery in El Segundo.

I told you there was a new sheriff in town and that your days in my community were numbered. Did you think I was kidding?

Now the EPA is about to smack both of you upside the head – and these are only the opening smacks you both have coming. Good thing you wear those hardhats. Maybe you should have spread some of your slush fund bribe money around to the schools and libraries in Washington DC where the EPA holds it meetings instead of trying to buy your love here from desperate parents and city councils in the South Bay. Continue reading →

Here they are, folks, the very Hot List of Global Warming’s Worst Merchants of Death. The for-profit companies who put the money they rake in from burning fossil fuels ahead of the safety, welfare and well being of your kids, of your parents, of your grandparents and of everyone you hold near and dear.

They know exactly what lethal damage their products and their manufacture are responsible for, but the money always comes first for these contract killers – unless of course you’re asking them to pay the bill for that damage.

It was a historic night in Torrance, California this evening as long-held differences were put aside and the City and your Creative Greenius came together to join forces on behalf of Saturday’s 350.org International Day of Climate Action. That’s me with my new favorite Councilman Cliff Numark just before the Council session started. Doesn’t he look relieved and happy? Don’t I look friendly and reasonable? It’s a new day in Torrance my friends.

It gets even better for those of us working to bring CO2 levels back down to 350 parts per million as you’ll see after the jump with exclusive video you’ll only see here first on Creative Greenius Continue reading →

Since 1993 my wife and I have lived in Torrance California, just a half mile from the beautiful beach and the Pacific Ocean. We feel very fortunate to live here at the base of the gorgeous Palos Verdes Peninsula, but today we’re breathing a big sigh of relief learning that the Palos Verdes Wildfire was 100% contained this morning. What we’re not breathing is clean air, because the smoke from the La Canada-Flintridge fire, about 38 miles from here, is still making air quality hazardous and people in the L.A. basin are being advised not to spend too much time outdoors and to keep their doors and windows closed and their air conditioners running.

As if I don’t have enough environmental trouble to worry about here in ToxicTown, Torrance, California, my home for the past 16+ years, what with the evil Exxon Mobil Refinery using 750 prime acres of our real estate to spew greenhouse gases and other climate changing emissions day and night with the blessing and endorsement of our City Council, Mayor and easy to please Environmental Commission.

But today my friends at Greenpeace released a new reason to worry about the environment here in Torrance. They put the bulls-eye on JCI Jones Chemical as the posterboys for needlessly dangerous chemical plants that put 4.5 million women, children and men at risk. I’m one of those men and I take it personally …

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The Creative Greenius

Welcome to Creative Greenius.
My name is Joe Galliani and I've been blogging as the Creative Greenius since October of 2007. I'm responsible for what you read here and I stand behind everything I write. I offer A Brighter Shade of Green that includes reporting, analysis, opinion, commentary and policy advisement.